Stoic Week 2015 Monday Evening Reflection

Text for Evening Reflection: "Let us go to our sleep with joy and gladness; let us say ‘I have lived; the course which Fortune set for me is finished.’ And if God is pleased to add another day, we should welcome it with glad hearts. That man is happiest, and is secure in his own possession of himself, who can await the morrow without apprehension. When a man has said: ‘I have lived!’, every morning he arises he receives a bonus." 

— Seneca, Letters, 12.9

Stoic Week 2015 Monday Morning Reflection

"From Maximus [I have learnt the importance of these things]: to be master of oneself and not carried this way and that; to be cheerful under all circumstances, including illness; a character with a harmonious blend of gentleness and dignity; readiness to tackle the task in hand without complaint; the confidence everyone had that whatever he said he meant and whatever he did was not done with bad intent; never to be astonished or panic-stricken, and never to be hurried or to hang back or be at a loss or downcast or cringing or on the other hand angry or suspicious; to be ready to help or forgive, and to be truthful; to give the impression of someone whose character is naturally upright rather than having undergone correction; the fact that no-one could have thought that Maximus looked down on him, or could have presumed to suppose that he was better than Maximus; and to have great personal
charm."

 — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 1.14

Boondock Saints Theme Song Violin (The Blood of Cu Chulainn)

I just published a fantasy novella on Kindle . . .

     So, back around 2001, I started tinkering with a Norse-themed fantasy setting called Midhgardhur. I ran a couple of Dungeons & Dragons games using the setting, but mostly it was just a pleasant mental exercise in world building. I started working on it a little more in-depth in 2011, and began a Pathfinder RPG campaign set in that world in November 2011 (that campaign is still running as of this writing, incidentally - we just had our 77th game session on June 6th, 2015). Anyway, a couple of years ago, for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month for those of you who may not be familiar with the acronym), I wrote a novella set in the world of Midhgardhur, called The Saga of Asa Oathkeeper. When NaNoWriMo was over, I didn't look at it again for a while, but I recently dusted it off and edited it, then passed it to my wife Tanya for another round of editing, then I tinkered with it a bit more. Today I decided to publish it for Amazon Kindle . . . why not, right? I mean, I wrote a novel (really more of a novella) - I'm going to put it out there! So today I published it, and I just got notification that it is live for sale on Amazon. So, if anyone is interested, please do check it out - it sells for just $3.99 and it is the first time I've ever tried publishing my writing for sale. Give it a shot! The link is http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZGDQGOU

30 Days To A Better Man, Day 17 - Talk To 3 Strangers

30 Days to a Better Man, Day 17 - Talk to 3 Strangers

     This one has never been a big deal for me - I don't really have a huge problem with talking to strangers (the teenage me would never believe it!). This task was especially easy to complete when I used to go to bars, or when I used to take public transportation. But these days - long solitary commute, long work day . . . I don't even interact with 3 strangers in my average day. This task may take me until the weekend to complete . . .

30 Days To A Better Man, Day 16 - Create A Budget

30 Days to a Better Man, Day 16 - Create A Budget

     Right now is not an easy time for budgeting. My wife is on disability, and is not getting any real regular income. My income is regular now, but is uncertain after June. So right now it is all but impossible to do this task effectively. But I have taken the steps I can to do this right. I have set up a budget in my Evernote and plugged in what I can for the moment. I will continue to plug in data as it becomes available, and build a functioning budget, with the plan to revise it around the Kalends of each month. So I may not create a budget in a day, but one is slowly evolving, and will continue to evolve . . .

30 Days To A Better Man, Day 15 - Make A Meal

30 Days to a Better Man, Day 15 - Make a Meal

I made my lunch today - but this isn't a big challenge for me, as I make a large percentage of the meals in my household!